FAILURES AND SUCCESSES 



fly, in your face. Even worse is the case in which you hook 

 a good fish, play it for some time, and then see the frayed gut 

 give way just as you are bringing the fish to the gaflF, the moment 

 of greatest strain in all the struggle, and the salmon half floats, 

 half rolls back to safety. The worst crime of all, however, 

 is that of neglecting to dry your line thoroughly after use, and 

 almost as bad is that of failing to test both reel line and backing 

 on a reel that is being used for the first time after being laid 

 aside at the end of the previous season. It is to this last, and 

 least excusable, piece of carelessness that I must ascribe the 

 minor tragedy which I am about to relate. 



Once again it was August, and I had crossed the North 

 Sea and left the Tasso at Christiansund, not on this occa- 

 sion bound for Sundal, but for Todal, which lies on the other 

 side of the long peninsula bounding the Sundal fjord on the 

 north. The Todal River, which falls into a little bay on the 

 south-west of Sundal, is only a short reach for salmon and sea- 

 trout, as a mighty foss, which comes thundering down a narrow 

 gorge some three miles above the sea, presents an effective 

 obstacle which no fish could possibly surmount. Below this, 

 however, runs the little river, with plenty of salmon pools, 

 some natural, some artificial, and all of them the more attractive 

 since, with a reasonable amount of wading, they can be fished 

 from the bank with quite a small rod. My own favourite was 

 a stiff 1 1 -ft. split cane made by Hardy, and carrying a dispro- 

 portionately large winch holding a hundred and fifty yards 

 of stout backing in addition to forty of reel line. One year I 

 rented Todal myself, but on this occasion I was the guest of 



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